Karnataka at 3rd spot in renewable energy production

Karnataka has overtaken Gujarat to become the third highest producer of renewable energy after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The state, which occupied the fourth position last year, has outranked Gujarat in the recently released progress report of the Union ministry of new and renewable energy.

Energy minister said in a tweet: “At 7,458MW, Karnataka now has the 3rd highest installed capacity in renewable energy. We will soon surpass Maharashtra to become 2nd in India.”

With the development of Asia’s biggest solar park at Pavagada in Tumakuru district, they were confident of clinching the number one spot by April 2018. Farmers have voluntarily contributed over 12,000 acres for the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore.

Wind and solar energy have received good response, and the state has added 3,200 MW from renewable energy sources in the past four years. Karnataka is providing a lucrative proposition for solar power adoption. The government acts as a major facilitator to bridge the energy demand and supply gap and supply power to the grid. Solar energy is getting cheaper by the year and in some time, it would be cheaper than the electricity grid. The favourable policy has also enabled large corporates to buy significant proportion of their power from solar farms at a discount to supply to grids under long-term contracts with solar developers.

The Karnataka government is also working with farmers to lease their land for solar and wind power generation and make them stakeholders in the energy future. When it comes to co-generation (use of power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time) and biomass generation, Karnataka is growing faster than other states.